GoDaddy WordPress Easy Mode Theme Design Case Study

Designing the perfect WordPress themes for GoDaddy customers.

GoDaddy approached us to help create a series of nine business-oriented WordPress themes that will help small businesses represent their brand brilliantly online.

We helped create a set of WordPress themes that look great for any business with customizable fonts, colors, layouts and more.

Design Process

After identifying GoDaddy's core goals and purpose for each theme, we set out to design each theme with a common set of modules. From nav menus to hero sections, we wanted to ensure each theme utilized similar types of content presented in unique ways.

While developing our new WordPress onboarding experience we commissioned Lift’s help to design new, unique themes for our customers. We were blown away by the results, Lift did an amazing job. Our customers now get beautiful, stunning websites to help build businesses as great as their ambitions.

— Gabe Mays, Head of WordPress Products, GoDaddy

Moodboards

Before we dug into visual design, we presented a series of mood boards that showed a small glimpse into the colors, fonts, and imagery for each theme. We presented them to the team, adjusted some of the styles, and started on the design phase.

Fitness Moodboard

One of the first styles we explored was a fitness theme aimed at health, wellness, and personal training verticals. The mood board for this theme was vibrant with bright colors, sharp fonts, and large photographs.

Luxury Moodboard

Aiming at retailers, high-end products/services, and luxury brands we planned a luxury theme that evokes a feeling of quality and exclusivity.

Masculine Moodboard

For all the new startups looking to be the next Dollar Shave Club, we presented a look that would work well for a brewery or barber shop with large, chunky type and masculine photography.

Interface Design

Once we decided on a series of ideas that worked for a large variety of businesses, we set to work crafting the visuals for each theme, taking note of typography, colors, and imagery from the mood board phase.

Development

After completing the initial theme design concepts, we began implementing them as child themes of a brand new theme named Primer.

01

Front-end Development

Using newfangled technologies like Sass, Composer, and Grunt we styled each child theme to match each design.

02

WordPress Development

In collaboration with the GoDaddy team, we helped craft the core of a new business WordPress theme built for GoDaddy's managed WordPress hosting.

03

QATesting

To ensure the quality of every line of code, our team performed rigorous testing on every supported browser and device.

Unique Features

In addition to crafting the bones of each theme, we wanted to help push WordPress themes into a future of accessibility, usability, and customization.

Custom Layouts

We added a custom layout section to WordPress to allow users to define a default and per-page layout.

Custom Fonts

Typography can make or break your brand, so we added font customization to give users more choice without added complexity and too many options.

Custom Colors

Taking a cue from some of the more advanced themes out there, we helped implement color scheme customization in a way that is impactful and straightforward.

Want to work with us?

If you have a big mission, a defined budget, and are ready to move forward with your project, get in touch with us today for a quote.